An evaluation of the effects of a personal growth and development course on the self-esteem levels of college students at a selected institution

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a positive change in levels of self-esteem for students who completed a Personal Growth and Development course at Purdue University. The study also examined if there was a greater change in levels of self-esteem for students enrolled in a Personal Growth and Development course compared to students enrolled in an Educational Psychology course;The 102 respondents were fall 1993 enrollees of two selected courses at Purdue University. The instrument employed in the study was the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS), a 100 item Likert inventory. A 100% response rate was achieved. The dependent variables were the pre- and post-tests, repeated measures within subject variable for Group I and Group II, between subject variables and the level of self-esteem. The independent variables consisted of gender, college level classification, community type and size, family size, and involvement in high school and college activities;The findings reported a significant difference in a positive change in students\u27 self-esteem levels enrolled in EDPS 100 based on pre- and post-test scores. There was also a significant difference in self-esteem gain scores of upper class students (juniors and seniors) versus lower class students (freshmen and sophomores). In addition, there was a larger gain score in self-esteem levels of students enrolled in EDPS 100 versus students\u27 enrolled in EDPS 230 as measured by the TSCS